Oliver!
Well, Ni No Kuni is wonderful, isn’t it? It’s so pleasant, like Okami. You just go around helping people and being a good sport. Flawless presentation too. I’m well acquainted with Studio Ghibli’s work and everything about this game is so breath-taking visually and aurally.

I’m really inexperienced with Japanese role-players and have struggled to get into them over the years, so this game is somewhat of a godsend. I’m appreciating how you learn all the ins and outs gradually, and the menus are easy to navigate. I think it also helps massively that my real name is Oliver, so there’s an immediate bond between myself and what’s going on. I don’t recall ever playing a game with a character called Oliver before, it’s actually quite surreal in a way. It’s like the game is talking to me directly.

Anyway, a great start to 2013. My fingers are now crossed in hope that Aliens: Colonial Marines doesn’t stink after all these years!Randy

GC: So Randy is more a state of mind than a name?

Right for the role
No matter how good Ni No Kuni is I wouldn’t have sent for it, if it was voiced by American actors.
This was a huge incentive for me as it’s not easy to compile a list of games released at retail level for this generation using the British accent, after you discount Fable or Call Of Duty.

After checking the American version it’s refreshing to see a publisher going to this effort for whatever region it’s released and I hope this factor goes some way to explain why stock levels have been spent even if it’s only had a limited release. Didn’t the same thing happen to a Dragon Quest game on the PlayStation 2?Ste C

GC: Dragon Quest VIII had a British voice cast, as do Wii role-players such as Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. We can’t say we were necessarily big fans though, the accents may be more appropriate to the setting but the British voice-actors are usually not as talented as their American counterparts.

Delete as applicable
Great/Terrible list of the top 20 games of last year.

Interesting to see how few/many of the top 20 are for the PC/PlayStation 3/Wii/Wii U/Xbox 360.

Clearly it’s been fixed though because GC are always championing/humiliating Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony.

I/We/You should be ashamed.

Here’s to another great year of honest reporting!
Keep up the good work.Boomey
PS: Although I am rubbish at it, one of my faves of last year was Sine Mora.

Utter garbage
I played the demo of DmC Devil May Cry and found it to be complete and utter gaming garbage. Needless to say I did not and will not be buying the game as it does not justify a purchase based upon the awful demo. I’m not a ‘hardcore Devil May Cry fan’ (whatever those are) but I do own the original versions of all previous Devil May Cry games.

I was and still am put off by the look and style of Ninja Theory’s take on the franchise – how anyone could describe the sub-par graphics as good is way beyond my understanding, especially given the length of time the hardware has been out there. Controls intuitive? Yes, in the previous versions, not in the demo I played on the Xbox 360.

Good story? Nephilim are referred to in the bible as being the offspring of angels cast to the vicinity of the earth (the third of the angels cast down from heaven) and of the daughters of men. In other words of what might be referred to as demons and of women. When exactly did Nephilin become offspring of angels and demons? Why, if you happened to be a demon with demonic powers would you want to control humans through controlling finances? The story was given compliments, why? The choice of words in some dialogue sequences was very immature and the scripting itself – not to mention voiceovers – was amateurish at best.

Level design being good? Not in the demo it wasn’t. Enemy design good? Nope not in the demo it wasn’t. I can understand that people have different opinions and I have mine. I’m not surprised that fans (not all fans) have snubbed Ninja Theory’s DmC. I’m very surprised that the game has scored so highly given how awful the demo was.

I really hope that Capcom will get back to making quality titles soon. It (Capcom) doesn’t need to pander to Western tastes – doing so has seen a drop in quality. Hopefully a proper Devil May Cry five will set the record straight.Graham

GC: We’re grateful to you for writing in, as this is the only letter we’ve had in like this for DmC. But we don’t understand at all we’re you’re coming from. In what way is it ‘complete and utter gaming garbage’? Can you be more specific about what you didn’t like in terms of the gameplay? We’ve played some bad games in our time, but in our opinion DmC isn’t even close to deserving that kind of description.

Stop kidding around
Although it’s good in a way that The Blurb is back on TV, along with the excellent Playr, I have to say I do find its so-called humour it uses on the show irritating, and because of that hard to watch. Sometimes it sounds like it was written by a 14-year-old’s idea of humour, two examples being the awful unfunny preview of Pikmin 3 and the look back at Beyond Good & Evil.

Playr on the other hand has the right balance of humour and informative reviewing, which for me makes a better show. The Blurb can be a great show, it just needs to turn down the way over-the-top humour.Hunsletkid (gamertag)
PS: Bargain alert Anarchy Reigns only £13.49 on Amazon, so go get it now!

Late to the party
Contemplating the weekend feature on Wii U, which was an interesting read I must say, the Wii U conundrum is a difficult one to assess. Personally I think Nintendo’s biggest strength – which is of course their own IP – is also their biggest weakness. A lot of scepticism about third party support has been voiced (myself included) but do gamers even buy a Nintendo console for anything other than the exclusives? None of the Wii U titles made the UK top ten, not even the bundled Nintendo Land, but I’d be interested to know how many copies of Black Ops II were sold on Wii U? Therein lays the problem, no third party developer is going to invest time and money on a Wii U version without the rewards.

You can understand a tentative approach from third party developers until there is confidence in the system. Obviously once the trio of next gen consoles is complete, creating games for inferior technology is only going to accentuate the problem with multiformat development. But if these games don’t sell too well on a Nintendo platform anyway, perhaps it won’t be the issue many of us assumed? There is often talk of having a Nintendo console as an addition, not your only source for games. In this economic climate that has its own set of problems, so a lot will hinge on the quality of the exclusives.

It’s most evident Nintendo would benefit from bolstering their development studios, which would help avoid the scenario gamers currently face – a waiting game. Nintendo should look at acquiring developers that reflect their own ethos for making video games – perhaps Platinum Games would be a good fit? Furthermore, Nintendo would capitalise from adding to their portfolio of franchises. Some new IP from Nintendo is long overdue; not every announcement has to include a Mario or Zelda. Nintendo’s strong financial position is common knowledge, so if third party support is going to be an issue, then they should be proactive to ensure they can deliver their own games on a more frequent basis.

Out of interest, is GC aware of the sales figures for Black Ops II on Wii U? The figure isn’t necessarily important, but the percentage of Wii U owners that bought a copy is perhaps more significant.Up4Banter

GC: Activision rarely release sales figures, especially not per format. They are still releasing patches for it though, which suggests some level of continuing interest.

Just imagine
I find it kinda sad that The Last Guardian has gone through such turmoil. I don’t have a PlayStation 3 and probably won’t get the PlayStation 4 but I always tried to imagine what the ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus teams could do on one of the current gen consoles. It’s been worked on for such a long time now that it would be a massive shame if the worst were to happen and it wasn’t released. People would be missing out. Still, I would probably never get to play it either way!Woko

Street music
Well, it seems David Platt in Coronation Street, who loves the odd bit of gaming related product placing, was also a Nintendo 64 fan at some point in his character’s past. Eagle-eyed viewers on Friday’s edition (February 1st) would have spotted a ‘N64 Legends Music CD’ tucked away in Gail’s writing bureau as Kylie looks for a diary.

Why am I telling you this? I don’t know really but it made me chuckle to think that someone on set saw fit to include this particularly obscure music CD in amongst the clutter on this scene. Tsk, and people say that I have bad eyes! (Yes, surprise… I watch Coronation Street).RedDotDinx (PSN ID)

Which button to decapitate?
Having had Ni No Kuni since last Thursday and playing through the initial stages over the weekend, much like Sega & All-Stars Racing Transformed last year it’s been a breath of fresh air doing things in a game that doesn’t involve having to mow down someone, shoot them in the head, axe, behead and carry out all manner of other monstrosities.

Although it’s pretty heavy going and slow at first, especially in having to learn all the controls, items and spells, etc. once you’re in your stride it’s majestic and on par thus far with the best role-playing games of any era. The story may not be ground-breaking but the way the game tells it is first class and in Drippy you surely have the best sidekick in gaming history! If the other big hitters of 2013 are anywhere near as polished as Ni No Kuni then we’re in for a mighty year indeed.

However, I can’t help but think it’s all a bitter sweet moment with this generation shortly coming to an end. Similar to how others have commented the ever increasing cost of gaming with a bleak economic outlook and household incomes taking a squeeze and coupled with a general lack of time has meant that I’m unlikely to enter the foray once the next gen arrives in its entirety.

The first year or so is usually a damp squid for new consoles anyhow and it’s no coincidence that new IPs like Ni No Kuni, Catherine, Dishonored and The Last Of Us are all being released towards the end of a consoles life where the userbase is at, its highest thereby ensuring better sales and revenue than what would probably have been achieved had they been released early on. The fear of countless sequels and undoubtedly yet more military first person shooters to come on new consoles feels me with dread and hasn’t lightened my enthusiasm.

Having supported the industry for 20 plus years I’d say that I’m due a welcome break from wallet-busting purchases. I’ll still be retro gaming mind you, my backlog is enough to last me an entire life time and it’ll be a blast revisiting all the arcade classics. This might be at least eight months too early but with opinions likely to be divided and changing any chance of a preliminary Hot Topic of how gamers have viewed this generation thus far compared to previous ones both in terms of quality and enhancement of gaming?Sam

GC: Actually, the prevailing logic from publishers is not to release new IPs towards the end of a generation, Dishonored is very much the exception to that rule. Ni No Kuni is over a year old in terms of its original Japanese release, and Catherine almost two years.

This week’s Hot Topic
Just in case you’re not tired of flexing your democratic muscles we have another, very different kind of vote to cast for this weekend’s Inbox. The annual Classic FM Hall of Fame is currently being compiled and we want to know which video game soundtracks you think should be included.

Last year Aerith’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII got as high as number 16 and Skyrim appeared at number 238, but we want to know what other video game soundtracks you think should be represented. Let us know via email what your favourite tracks are and why, and feel free to include anything as long it’s at least vaguely classical in nature (just no dubstep).

If you want to vote in the Classic FM poll at the same time then the voting page is here. Their voting finishes on February 15 but we’ll need your comments in for the Hot Topic by the end of this Friday, as usual.